Even though I am audiophile with Mark Levinson reference gear, I have been using a computer as my only digital source since 2005, After several years, I finally got all of my 3,400 CDs ripped into 44,000 tracks and I have have carefully annotated them all in iTunes and stored them as ALAC files.
Last Fall I purchased an Aurender N10 music server and I LOVE it. As a music server , it is much easier to use than my computer. There are drawbacks as iTunes is a much more powerful database so I have to keep the library on iTunes to search in the many fields which Aurender's app does not yet support. But the cover support on the N10 is terrific and I can usually find things quickly and get them playing from my listening chair.
The sound of the N10 is superb. It was a big step up from my desktop Mac even though my Bricasti M1 SE DAC has excellent rejection of source jitter. I am using the AES SPDIF interface on the N10, but the USB interface works equally well.
If you can get your dealer to let you take an N10 home on approval, I just about guarantee you won't be bringing it back.
Good Luck,
John
Last Fall I purchased an Aurender N10 music server and I LOVE it. As a music server , it is much easier to use than my computer. There are drawbacks as iTunes is a much more powerful database so I have to keep the library on iTunes to search in the many fields which Aurender's app does not yet support. But the cover support on the N10 is terrific and I can usually find things quickly and get them playing from my listening chair.
The sound of the N10 is superb. It was a big step up from my desktop Mac even though my Bricasti M1 SE DAC has excellent rejection of source jitter. I am using the AES SPDIF interface on the N10, but the USB interface works equally well.
If you can get your dealer to let you take an N10 home on approval, I just about guarantee you won't be bringing it back.
Good Luck,
John